It is well recognized in the prior art the benefit of playing games as an enjoyable method by which an individual can build their motor, eye/hand coordination, and mathematical skills. Most games have an element of chance and an element of competitive strategy that allows the player to win the game while utilizing a minimal amount of apparatus required to play the game. There are numerous approaches to playing games, although most of the games utilize a series of chance elements, typically being dice as the most common example of a chance element, thus the typical dice or die contains six sides, in that each of the sides normally has an indicia in the form of a letter or a particular number of dots indicating a number. The dice are then rolled by the player with the top side of the dice counting as letters or numbers that the player can utilize in an attempt to utilize the various indicated letters or numbers for some type of scoring scheme that eventually will lead to a game winner. There are many other types of chance elements such as such as horseshoes, darts, rings, and the like, wherein all of the aforementioned chance elements involve both an element of player skill and “luck” or chance in obtaining the desired score, position, or the like. The mix or ratio of skill to chance varies with the chance element, however, in any case with the more use of the chance element by the player, an increased content of skill usually is present giving the player an advantage in attempting to give the player a more desired result from the chance element.
In looking at the prior art in the chance element game area, specifically being concerned with ring type chance elements, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,171,019 to Arnette disclosed a tethered ring and hook game and kit. In Arnette, a brass ring is tethered to a ceiling by means of an eye screw mounted to the ceiling, further a ball-in-socket swivel is provided intermediate between the string and the eye screw to prevent the cord from being twisted as the ring is released toward the hook. A hook supported block in Arnette is adapted to be mounted to a wall by means of a dowel screw, Velcro fasteners, or a hook, and is mounted to the resilient (vibration dampening) block for receiving the ring, reference column 1, lines 66-69 and column 2, lines 6-17. Continuing in this area, looking at United States design Pat. No. US D288,828 to Romestan et al. disclosed is a design for a ring toss game target board having a ring tied to a string, and a target board with eleven hooks set at different game-point values. The target board in Romestan et al., is attached to a vertical board at an acute angle with the vertical board including peg holes to record player wins and losses, reference FIGS. 1 and 2. Note that in Romestan et al., there is no disclosure related to the mounting or the mounting position of the tether that supports the ring.
Yet further, in the prior art in the ring game area, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,200 to Loring et al. disclosed is a tethered ring game with hook configuration having a ring made of heavy material such as steel attached to a tether made of a stable and flexible material such as braided nylon cord. In Loring et al., the cord is attached to an overhead mounted pendulum base affixed to an overhead support or ceiling. The cord's length in Loring et al., is equal to the distance between the pendulum base and a wall mounted hook with the tethered ring removably engaged upon the wall mounted hook. In addition, Loring et al., modifies the standard open hook configuration by eliminating the shank and/or “goose neck” and varies the circumference of the actual circular hook portion, see in particular FIGS. 3 and 7b, with the goal of making the player skill required increase. Loring et al., has optionally the hook being mounted on the free end of an arm with the other end mounted to a shaft of a motor having a counterclockwise rotation with play being begun by starting the motor and timing the pendulous action of the ring to snare the hook to add a new challenge (by having the hook in motion) to landing or removably engaging the ring upon the hook, see FIG. 5. Further, in Loring et al., the counterclockwise rotation of the arm will disengage the ring and put it back in play, reference column 2, lines 18-26, lines 35-39, and lines 41-45.
Continuing, in the prior art for ring toss games, in looking at United States Design Pat. No. US D423,057 to Mooney that discloses a ring that is suspended upon a tether from an overhead support being removably engaged to a wall mounted hook, as this is a design patent there is no functional teaching other than what is disclosed in the Figures, thus there is no disclosure related to tether support position relative to the wall mounted hook, or the size and configuration of the ring and hook themselves. Continuing, in this same area of hook and ring game prior art and being similar to Romestan et al., in United States design Pat. No. US D285,811 to Donahoe disclosed is a tethered ring and hook game that is self contained including an integral vertical support for the hook board and an overhead support for the ring tether. Donahoe's hook board is similar in appearance to Romestan et al., by having a board face at an acute angle to the vertical support with a plurality of randomly positioned hooks. Further, in the design patent prior art area for hook and ring games, in United States design Pat. No. US D266,013 to Perry et al., that again with Perry et al., being a design patent, there is no teaching related to tether and ring positioning and the associated skill levels, being merely a pictorial representation of a tethered ring and a hook on a common structure.
Further, in the prior art for hook and ring games that are different versions of the aforementioned hook and ring games, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,498 to Mutschler et al., disclosed is a self contained hook and ring game that has a tether suspended form an overhead support wherein the ring has an extension rod or beam (or termed “second target rod 48”) from the outer ring circumference with the ring swinging on the tether in an attempt to engagably land on a plurality of hooks that are randomly mounted positionally on a vertical pole. This extension rod in Mutschler et al., has the effect of increasing the difficulty of engaging the ring upon the hook by acting as a blocking element to prevent other hook members from impalation of the ring, in addition the extension also can cause an uneven (unbalanced) flight path of the ring, further increasing the difficulty of engaging the ring upon the hook during the player throw of the ring.
Other options, in this area include scoring assistance components, such as electronic buzzers, lights, and the like, in looking at U.S. Pat. No. 4,635,942 to Flaherty, Jr. a ring and hook game is disclosed that utilizes a pair of hooks that a ring randomly removably engages, wherein the ring being engaged to the pair of hooks facilitates a closed electrical circuit as between the pair of hooks that that activates a light and a buzzer for scoring purposes. In Flaherty, Jr. as far as the tether and ring mounting on an overhead support and the hooks being positioned as against a vertical support, this hook and ring game is fairly conventional. Furthermore, in Flaherty, Jr. there is no teaching relative to positioning of the tether, ring or hooks in relation to the skill level required for playing of the game. Another prior art example for a hook and ring game with the enhancement of automated scoring apparatus is in U.S. Pat. No. 5,709,604 to Coats et al., that discloses a self contained hook and ring game in the form of an arcade type game apparatus. In Coats et al., there is some level of sophisticated scoring logic utilizing hardware and software for scoring multiple players, display of scores, having capability for coin operation for pay for play function. Further in Coats et al., there is a skill varying option to reposition the hook rotationally as against the vertical board, i.e. as being vertically upright (hook open side being upright), or the hook open side facing laterally outward, and also with the hook open side facing downward, or even with the hook continuously rotating, with the hook open end operating through a three hundred and sixty degree circumferential arc for the highest level of player difficulty, being somewhat similar to Loring et al, for the operation of hook movement, although Loring et al., optionally rotates the hook through a large radius arc, wherein Coats et al., optionally rotates the hook about its shank longitudinal axis.
What is needed is a game that allows a higher proportion of player strategy and options as opposed to the prior art concentrating mostly on player chance by typically initiating a chance element into motion and hoping for the best result. A number of the cited references abruptly change the playing game difficulty by initiating some structural change to a singular new higher level of difficulty, such as moving the hook to increase difficulty in scoring or engaging the ring upon the hook, as in Loring et al., and Coats et al., or by adding obfuscating structure to the ring to increase difficulty as in Mutschler et al., Only Coats et al., offers some incremental difficulty increase adjustment with the hook opening being right side up, the hook open on the side, or the hook open on the bottom for setting varying levels of difficulty in engaging the ring on the hook. Outside of the prior art hook and ring games controlling to some extent the chance element (or difficulty of engaging the ring upon the hook), via positioning of the hook rotationally or adding structure to the ring, there is little taught on the positioning of the ring tether in relation to the hook position, wherein without controlling this positioning there will be a large degree of variance in game playing engagements of the ring upon the hook and thus in difficulty level of scoring in the game. Thus, there needs to be a hook and ring game that gives criterion for the ring tethering position in relation to the hook, along with incremental adjustments possible for the hook for instance that would allow a player to “fine tune” the game difficulty level to a large number of desired levels of challenge, and that way the game would have a more controlled ability level to successfully engage the ring and the hook for all skill levels to enjoy.